Hillary Clinton's Wisconsin lead over Donald Trump is shrinking

Two polls released on Wednesday showed that Hillary
Clinton's lead over Donald Trump in Wisconsin has shrunk
considerably since early August.

A poll from Marquette
University found that, in a four-way presidential race that
includes Libertarian nominee Gary Johnson and Green Party nominee
Jill Stein, Clinton is ahead of Trump by 3 points among likely
voters.

In early August, Clinton was up 13 points on Trump in the same
four-way poll.

"After a strong bump in Clinton's favor following the national
party conventions, the electorate in Wisconsin has returned to
about where the vote stood in July, prior to the conventions,"
said Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll
and professor of law and public policy.

The Marquette poll showed that Clinton's favorability has dropped
off considerably while Trump's already dismal mark stagnated.
Clinton was viewed favorably by 35% of respondents, while
63% viewed her unfavorably. In early August, the poll showed that
43% of Wisconsin voters viewed the Democratic nominee favorably,
while 53% held unfavorable views of her. By comparison, Trump's
favorability improved 1 point from early August, going
from 27% to 28%.

In 2012, President Barack Obama defeated former Massachusetts
Gov. Mitt Romney by 7 points in the Badger State.

"The current presidential-election race in Wisconsin is looking a
lot like the 2012 contest right now," said Patrick Murray,
director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute.

The Marquette poll surveyed 803 registered Wisconsin voters by
landline and cellphone from August 25 through 28. The margin
of error is 4.5 percentage points. The Monmouth poll was
conducted over landlines and cellphones from August 27 to 30,
using a sample of 404 likely Wisconsin voters. The margin of
error for that poll was 4.9 percentage points.